400ex-440ex oh yeah!

[tater_kamik]

my buddyand i were building an 440ex, and finished last night but.... it wont start! it gets spark, the motor turns over, but no go! i couldnt smell any fuel and yes, the petcock was open. the floatbowl was good, but there are two vacuum lines which go into a Y fitting into one vacuum line which we do not know where they go! also, at top dead center, are the lobes of the camshaft supposed to go up or down?? any other ideas????

[Rico]

Lobes go down

Did you guys put a new spark plug in during this rebuild???

[44oEX]

the lines are only breather lines so don't worry they don't go any where.

as for starting.... when I built my 440 a couple years back it didn't want to start for nothing. all I had to do was hook it up to a car's battery with booster cables and make it turn for like 20 sec :eek2: then it started, after a first warm up you shouldn't have any more problems, the car battery will make the motor turn faster so it should start, and once everything is sealed up it will start on it's own power.

[TC426EX]

Lobes go down as Rico said, and make sure the grooves on the cam sprocket are flush with the head surface. Sometimes the first start is the hardest, so I agree, hook it up to a car battery with jumpers (thats what I just did with mine), and crank it over for a while until it starts. Check your valve adjustments too... Even if theyre a little off, it should still at least fire, but check em anyway. Sounds silly, but just as a precaution, make sure there isnt a bubble in the oil lines somewhere and that the engine is getting oil. Wouldnt want to crank it over for an extended period of time when its dry. When you turn it over, you should be able to look into one of the valve adjustment holes in the top after removing the cap and see oil spewing out of the cam.

[tater_kamik]

we did try it with an car battery with the truck running, and it wouldnt start! didnt put a new plug in though i wanted to, still gets spark though! took out the choke plates, could that be a problem? the lobes on the cam are down and the hash marks align with the cylinder, didnt check to see if oil was coming out though... any other ideas?!? :confused:

[limetimeracerII]

What compression is the piston you put in.
Did you you put the decompession pin and spring under the cam. If you forgot them and you have a 13:1 piston I'm pretty sure the starter won't turn the motor over fast enough to start it no matter if you jump if or not. Try pull starting it. If it starts Your starter isn't turnig the motor over fast enough.

[tater_kamik]

11:1 with the head shaved a little bit. i will have to call my buddy and see if he did, i cannot remember! i still do not think i can smell fuel though when we are trying to crank it. it is definately turning over, very quickly when we hooked it up to the truck. i cant mess with it right now, my friend who owns it is up in ohio. i will let yall know if we did or didnt put that in. any more ideas?

[khen]

Have you tried stabbing the throttle a few times before starting it to pump some gas into it? If you have with no success, I'd try priming the carb manually with a small squirt of gas to determine if it's a fuel issue or not.

[tater_kamik]

thats what we wanted to do but we ran out of time!